Teaching women how to turn their blogs into profitable businesses!

How to Get Tons of Blog Traffic from Social Media....

without getting sucked into it all day!

Do you find yourself posting a lot on Facebook and pinning a ton on Pinterest without getting the results you want? Are you tired of going around in circles on social media and getting sucked into it all day? My super helpful guide will tell you everything you need to know on how to get traffic the RIGHT way from social media...without being on it all day!!!

“She’s making money blogging and she’s only been blogging for two months and I’ve been doing it for a year.”

I have heard these comments from bloggers many times. I have also said to myself.

I think comparing ourselves to others isn’t about jealousy, well maybe it is a little bit. But I think it is about something more. I think it is about being confident in who we are and what we have to offer. I think it is about the belief that we will accomplish our dreams and goals.

Yet if we let ourselves spin in the cycle of comparison without pulling ourselves out, we are doomed to fail. If we manifest enough negativity about ourselves it is hard to overcome. So how do you stop this damaging cycle? You practice the following 9 steps.

1. Acknowledge Your Feelings

The first thing you must do is acknowledge how you are feeling. Put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and write it out. Say “I am jealous of Beth because she has only been blogging for six months and she is making $3,000 a month and I want to make $3,000 a month.”

Whatever the comparison is that is going on in your head, acknowledge it. Don’t keep it in the darkness in your mind where it will fester. Write about what’s bugging you.

Then examine why it is bugging you. Are you upset because that $3,000 a month would change your family’s financial picture? Are you feeling jealous because it seems so easy for Beth? Or are you feeling scared that you will never have that kind of success in your blog or business?

When you get to the emotion behind the comparison it is much easier to deal with how you are feeling. You can name your emotions, your fears, and your worries. It brings light to those negative feelings. If you catch yourself in the comparison trap, take time to slow down, acknowledge it, and write how you are feeling.

2. You are Unique

The next thing I want you to do when you fall into the comparison trap is write about you. I want you to take 10 minutes and make a list of 10 things you are good at. You were uniquely wired with unique gifts and talents to give to the world. What are they? Make a list.

Here’s what I often have to remind myself. “Yes there are hundreds of bloggers that write about marketing and the business of blogging. But there is only one Jennifer Snyder. My voice, my perspective is unique to the world. What I have to offer to the world is good, useful, and helps people.”

The same is true for you. The world so desperately needs your uniqueness, your goodness, and your help right now. Take a look at your list of 10 gifts and talents when you are comparing yourself to someone else. Yes we need that person in this world sharing their gifts, but you know what? We need you too.

3. Read Your Testimonials

Reading my testimonials makes me feel better whenever I feel stuck. I have screen shots on my phone from testimonials I have received on Facebook. I save links on Facebook when someone compliments me. When people email me and tell me how much I have helped them, I star them to read when my confidence is shaky.

The work we are doing is sensitive. It is tied to us personally. We are giving of ourselves, our beings, through our writing, our coaching, our programs. That’s pretty intense isn’t it?

I think that’s why comparing ourselves to others can hurt so much. We are comparing our self-worth against someone else’s and that does not feel good. Save your testimonials for moments like this. When someone values your blog post or a coaching session you did changed someone’s perspective, save those testimonials. They remind you that you are in fact doing work that is helping other people. What you are doing has value and YOU have value!

4. Practice Gratitude

I heard this in church this past weekend, “Gratitude is medicine.” Let that sink in for a second. Gratitude is medicine.

When you feel like someone is ahead of you on the blogging or business journey, practice gratitude. Be thankful for all the things in your life that have led you to your blog. Be thankful that you had kids because now you can write that mom blog. Be thankful that you had that failed business because now you can encourage women that want to start a business.

When you are comparing yourself to other bloggers, other business owners, take a few minutes to remember your journey. Then be thankful for all the steps along the way that have gotten you to this point. Be thankful for what you have accomplished this far because I know it is a lot. Honor your process, your accomplishments, your journey. Honor yourself and be grateful.

5. Talk to Your Person

One of my favorite things to do when I get into this comparison funk is to talk to my people. My husband is really great at reminding me of my value and all the things I am good at. I am a lucky woman and I love him dearly for that. Yet sometim
es I need a different perspective.

Is that wrong or needy? Nope and here’s why.

Yes, my husband is my rock, my person, but we don’t have the same career. He is off in his financial advising world and doesn’t understand blogging or online business. Bless his heart, he tries, but he isn’t here in the trenches doing it. Just like I am not in the trenches building a financial advising practice.

But you know who is there with him? His co-workers. His fellow financial advisers that have been there and are going through the same things. When he talks to these people he feels less alone and gets good ideas on how to improve his business.

Sounds nice doesn’t it?!

Did you know the same resources are available to you? No you may not have co-workers, but there are fellow bloggers and online business owners in your space that will get what you are feeling. Take time to get to know people online and connect with them. Help them and give to them. Then when you need it they will be there for you.

And when you do need their help, get honest with them. Say “hey I am struggling because I am comparing myself to Beth Blogger who’s killing it and I am not. It’s making me feel like crap.” I promise you if you allow yourself to have authentic connections like this with people online, you will find a support system that will bring you up when you are down. I know I am thankful for mine!

6. Don’t Compare Your Beginning to Someone Else’s Middle

I was so guilty of this until I read this quote a few years ago. I would think: “Well Jane has 10,000 people on her email list and is making $50,000 a month blogging.”

Of course she is! Jane has been blogging for 10 years and knows her niche. She has programs and services to meet the needs of her followers. But Jane didn’t start out that way.

Jane started out like you. She had a handful of blog posts, 23 people on her email list, was blogging 60 hours a week, and making zero every month. Like you Jane worked her butt off to make something of her blog and turn it into a business. But it took time, trial and error, lots of mistakes, and a handful of wins to get there.

This is something that has been bothering me when I publish my income reports. I worry that women will read them and compare themselves to me. I swear every time I publish one of those reports I want to add an amendment called “But Wait.” But wait, you don’t know this is my third blog. But wait, you don’t know that I have floundered in another business. But wait, you don’t know the personal trauma I had to go through to get here.

But wait.

My journey is different than yours and yours is different than mine. We will all arrive at our destination as long as we keep trying, keep putting ourselves out there, and keep helping other people.

Think about Jane’s journey when you compare yourself to her. She didn’t start out huge, but she did work hard to get where she is. Don’t compare Jane’s middle to your beginning. Instead learn from her and then help others when you get to the top!

And promise me you will take the income reports that I publish, and that other people publish with a grain of salt? Add a “but wait amendment” to them after you read them okay?

7. Befriend Them

I have to share with you one of the kindest things someone ever did for me in business. This blogger was having her own comparison moment with me. Me?! Truly I was shocked by this. I admired this blogger, still do, and think she is one of the best writers and people I have met. So for her to compare herself to me was hard for me to fathom.

You know what she did? She reached out to me. She said in not so many words, I was feeling jealous of where you are and I thought instead of feeling that way, I would reach out to you and get to know you, and find out what you are doing that’s working.

Talk about a slice of humble pie for me. It still gives me goose bumps.

What this blogger did was not only kind, it was smart. Instead of being jealous of me or comparing herself to me, she reached out and got to know me. She took time to get on the phone with me and talk about what’s bugging her about her business. In turn, it gave me the opportunity to share what was bugging me in my business. Because while it may look good on the outside it isn’t all roses on the inside.

By reaching out to me this blogger gave us the opportunity to squash the comparison monster. It gave us the chance to have an authentic conversation which isn’t easy online these days. In this conversation we helped each other and a friendship was born. Talk about turning something negative into a huge positive!

If you are really stuck comparing yourself to a blogger or a business owner reach out to them! Get to know them through the blog or website. Engage with them and start a conversation. You might find someone new that gets where you are, where you are going, and wants to be your friend. Not a bad way to kill the comparison monster is it?!

8. Take a Break

The internet is a lonely place! It is filled with only the best Facebook memories and events isn’t it? We all make our posts to look so pretty. Life is so perfect on Facebook isn’t?!

Except it’s not. And we have to remember that we are reading our newsfeed through a rose-filtered lens.

When you find the comparison monster getting you, take a break from the internet. Get off Facebook for a few days. Pull yourself away from the rose-colored view and back into the real world where it is messy and not perfect.

While you are on this break do something physical that is productive. Go for a run, de-clutter your bedroom, or do a craft with your kids. Do something physical to take your mind off comparing yourself to other people. Doing this breathes life back into you as a person. Remember at the end of the day, you are awesome and more than who you are on the internet.

9. Your Season of Life

Okay true confession time. Pretty much every single day I have to remind myself where I am in my season of life. When I see other bloggers or online business owners doing so much better than me, I remind myself where I am in my life.

Yet everyone else gives me a break but me. You know what everyone says to me when I tell them I have three kids, ages 7, 4, and 3?

Wow you have your hands full.

You are dang right I do! Now why can’t I ever remember that when I am comparing myself to other people?

I have to remind myself constantly that I might in fact be farther ahead if I had more time to work on my business. As it sits I have about 2-4 hours every day to work on it. It sounds like a lot, but it really isn’t. Many of those hours are interrupted by shuttling kids to preschool, putting them down for naps, and cooking dinner. Plus a million other things. I am working on my business in the fringe hours, including when I am exhausted and not at my best.

The truth is we are all at a different season of life. Some of us have to blog in the fringe hours because we work a full-time job from 8-5. Some of us are surrounded by little people and trying to build blogs between preschool drop off and nap time. Some of us have part-time help and some of us can’t afford it right now. When you find yourself comparing yourself to others, make sure you are comparing your seasons of life too.

Comparing yourself to others is human nature, especially for us women. We are good at being hard on ourselves. My hope is that after reading this post you will give yourself some grace. Heck I hope I will give myself some grace too! You are doing the best you can lady! I am thankful that you are out in the world sharing your unique voice with us!

9 Things to Do When You Compare Yourself to Other People was last modified: August 25th, 2017 by Jen Snyder

Everyday at 3:34 in the afternoon I am startled by the sound of my alarm on my phone. I still chuckle that nearly everyday this alarm startles me just as much as the rude alarm that wakes me up so bright and early in the morning.

You see I hate to be late. I feel it is rude and disrespectful of someone else’s time. But you know who I hate being late for the most? My kids.

“Just One More Thing….”

My mom was always late picking me up from school or band practice or a friend’s house. And I am not saying this to rag on my mom. Punctuality just wasn’t her strong suit then or now.

My mom operates on the theory “I have enough time to squeeze in this one more thing before I go….” So I know that she wasn’t late picking me up not because she didn’t care or because she forgot, but because she was just trying to get that last thing done before the chaos ensued again.

Now that I am a mom, I understand it better than I did when I was a kid. (Isn’t that true about parenting in general once you are the one in the hot seat?!) But I will tell you as a kid, I hated being the last one picked up. It made me sad and lonely and embarrassed. We try to learn from our parents mistakes, just as our parents learned from their parents. One of my lessons is I don’t want to be late to pick up my kids from anything ever.

The Inner Struggle

Our family and friends will often say that I am a carbon copy of my mom. We look alike, we think alike and sometimes even act alike, so I also know that I suffer from the “squeeze in one last thing” syndrome. I knew I needed to figure out how I was going to reconcile my need to squeeze the one last thing in with my need to not be late to pick up my kids.

I decided when school started that first week in September, that I would set an alarm on my phone precisely 7 minutes before my shoes had to be on and I had to be out the door to pick up my oldest from school. That alarm became my mental signal that I had 7 more minutes. That I had 7 more minutes to squeeze one more thing in.

This practice has somehow satisfied both of my needs and in a strange way makes me feel more accomplished playing the dual role of Mom and business owner. Did you know there’s a lot that you can accomplish in just 7 minutes?

You know what else I can do in 7 minutes? I can take 7 minutes for me. To breathe. To close my eyes. To prepare myself for the chaos that is about to ensue.

Where are your 7 minutes?

I know you are a busy women. You have to wear all the hats, not just in your blog, but in your jobs, whether inside or outside the home. But what could you do in just 7 minutes? Brainstorm five new ideas for your email newsletter? Update your editorial calendar for the next month? Fix a thing or two on your blog? Maybe help out someone in a Facebook group that is in your niche?

I know that you don’t always have an hour or even a half hour in your day to work on your blog instead of in it. But I bet you could find just 7 minutes. Six minutes to breath. To think. To do something nice for someone else. Or maybe take that 7 minutes for yourself every once in awhile before the chaos ensues.

Yes, everyday the alarm does startle me at 3:34 pm, but I have come to look forward to that sound everyday. It is a reminder for me to take 7 minutes to do something for my business before the best part of my day comes home. Taking those 7 minutes to do something that fulfills me, makes it so I can fill up someone else later– in fact 4 important someone elses– my family.

Where can you find 7 minutes in your day everyday that you can set an alarm for? Are you like me and hate being late so this is a normal habit for you? Are you traumatized by being picked up late too?! Please share with me about it in the comments below. I would love to hear about your thoughts!

What can you do in 7 minutes? was last modified: August 25th, 2017 by Jen Snyder

I first got my start with blogging back in 2007. I loved the mom coupon blogs and was eager to start one of my own. While I enjoyed writing that blog the time it took to do it and not make any money wore on me. That blog lasted about five months before I stopped writing it.

The next blog I created was more recent. I have worked in real estate my entire life. For the last nine years I have owned a company that has helped Realtors with their marketing. I have always had all these marketing ideas floating around so I decided to act on them. I started writing a blog simply titled Marketing Ideas for Agents. It felt so great to get these ideas out on my blog and share them with agents.

I look at the two blogs I created and I won’t call them failures, but they weren’t crazy successes either. I enjoyed writing both of them and then one day I didn’t. In light of starting over with a new blog I thought I would write about lessons that I have learned from two dead blogs.

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Meet Jen

Hi I'm Jen: Wife to one great guy, mom to the best 3 crazies a woman could ask for and a business owner. My passion is to help women build and grow their online business, so they can have the flexibility to do the work they love while spending time with the people they love. Join in the conversation on my blog and learn how you can do just that!